Elizabeth Anne "Annie" Wells Cannon was born December 7, 1859 in Salt Lake City, Utah to Daniels Hanmer and Emmeline Blanche Woodward Wells. She was always interested in religion, and at age fourteen joined the Relief Society. She attended the best schools available at the time, including the Deseret University. At age twenty she married John Quayle Cannon. They had eleven children together.
Annie was a prominent women's suffragist in Utah who served in the Utah House of Representatives from 1913 to 1915 and again in 1921. She was also president of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers and a charter member of the Utah Red Cross.
In addition to her religious works, she has non-religious poetry published in the Relief Society Magazine.